Milwaukee woman gets 25 years for suffocating son

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Milwaukee woman has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for smothering her toddler son.

A judge Tuesday sentenced 37-year-old Nora Zylstra to the state-recommended sentence. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the sentence is 10 years more than Zylstra’s attorney suggested.

Zylstra pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree reckless homicide, not the original count of first-degree intentional homicide. She was accused in the March 9 death of her 14-month-old son, Leonidas Fisher.

The child’s father, Lucas Fisher, told the judge that “no words can express how broken” he is. Fischer described Zylstra as controlling and manipulating, and said he decided to leave her in February.

Zylstra’s attorney said Fisher’s departure may have triggered feelings of abandonment Zylstra experienced as a child, when her father walked out on her family.